


Higher

by emmergefromhell



Category: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!
Genre: Feels, Just so you know there’s no MC in this fic, Light Angst, Mentions of other characters including Lilith, Other, Songfic, the song actually gives me Levi’s vibe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 03:14:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29835162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmergefromhell/pseuds/emmergefromhell
Summary: When you cannot feel the flow of time, your heart becomes more palpable to your naked eyes.
Kudos: 4





	Higher

**Author's Note:**

> The headcanon I based on to write this: when they all fell from grace, the brothers were all scattered randomly in either the human world or the Devildom. In Levi’s case, he was stranded on a no-man island.
> 
> There’s nothing much in this fic aside from my awful writing :’( but please enjoy it along with the song ‘Higher’ by Clean Bandits ft. iann dior.

...  
...  
...

Sea water can be deadly to some, but home to many. The sublime salty, sandy taste leaves a bitter impression, yet that very same taste nurtures a vast amount of little creatures crawling in its hold.

In the embrace of the sea, he’s at peace.

He’s at _home._

...  
...  
...

He didn’t originally belong to this hollow blue.

He was pure white, he was radiating light, and his eyes beamed the brightest shades of sunset that melted away the cold. He belonged to the heaven, brimming with sparks of warm sunlight and drops of clear, glassy morning dew that tasted sweeter than honey. The world was light and gently dry on the touch.

And yet it drowned in red.

Red wasn’t a suitable color on Leviathan, not anywhere on his once holy body and even this morphed, twisted body. Not on his hair that showers in sparkling tones of purplish blue, not on his pale, once embraced by the sun and now casted away from light skin, not on his clothes which has been void of its majestic figures and replaced by a swirl of black - as black as the deepest depths of the sea, not on his coral-shaped horns - his broken, faded halo, the proof of his former angelic status - that some little seahorses nest themselves secretly in, not on his serpentine tail that waves with boiling wrath and seething envy. Red never adorned his body in any volumes of normalcy, it only poured out from within, when someone finally gave it an escape route - something that brought him extreme pain every time he looked at the closed exits those wretched drops of red managed to escape through.

When he fell from above, covered in blotches of ironic redness, the cold sea blue opened itself up for him, washed him away from that shades he hated, and reformed him gently when he’s still unconscious, drowned in unmeasurable pain and sourness from losing.

The sea gave birth to Leviathan again.

This hollow blue might not be his first home, but it is his greatest sanctuary.

...  
...  
...

He sluggishly opens his eyes, twiching and shifting to adjust the brightness that he finds rather familiar. The sun’s not too scorching hot, perhaps because it is still early in the morning - he can see tingles of wispy clouds mindlessly drifting above, what’s left of a dimly lit night with a crescent moon hanging, hiding behind them. His sun-kissed skin now coated with a light shade of reddish pink, a scattered layer of white sand, dampened by sea water. He gently brushes them off, grudgingly yawns and stretches as he gets up. Another day awaits.

The first thought in his mind is how hungry he is right now. His stomach lets out small, persistent rumbles to remind him that he hasn’t eaten much since yesterday’s dinner, too focused on watching the night sky and reminiscing about what used to hover home to him, wondering where his brothers could be and whether their sister managed to survive or not. He wasn’t there with her, he was burden with that heaving duty of commanding their entire army of rebels, he wasn’t there to protect her. He wished she’s fine. And he bites his lips. If he wants to see Lilith again, he must first survive. So he sets off to find some food, whatever is edible that he can catch from the glimmering blue sea or discover on this deserted island.

The water, under bright rays of sunlight, becomes translucent, naked to his eyes. He can see some hermit crabs making their way through the vast shore to look for another home they may save for the future, some fish swimming around a little further outside like they’re challenging him. He stares at them, they’ll be hard to catch, and he doesn’t have a fishing rod or anything similar - he has yet to make one - to catch them, so that passes. He looks at the hermit crabs again, the way a little one crawling slowly, carrying its oversized home step by step, the poor little creature hasn’t grown big enough to fit, and probably because the shell was a leftover - no one wanted a ragged-looking shell that’s lined with holes everywhere.

There are some small lobsters scrounging near where he’s standing too, seemingly lost in direction. Leviathan observes them, carefully, waiting for an opening which he can catch them quickly. If he’s too hasty, he won’t get much for breakfast. So he waits, standing still, frozen in his position, in his palm a small wooden stake he crafted from one of the branches he gathered last night for firewood waiting to be launched. His eyes follow the creatures attentively, until one of them comes to a light halt. The lobster momentarily stops to check its direction. 

And at that moment, swish.

There wasn’t even time for it to react before the stake went lodging through its shell, creating a small crack and the next moment was just pure nervous system firings, its final reaction to such a sudden death.

The other lobsters quickly disbanded out of fear. Losing one is already enough to make their instincts hyper aware of what is going on around, and it’s telling them to flight instead of fight.

But Leviathan smiles. A light breakfast is alright, after all, he can’t really eat that much no matter how hungry, and it’s not like hunger can kill him - he actually wished it could. Being immortal can be a painful bliss. He picks the ill-fated little prey up from the sands and brings it back to his makeshift home - just a secluded area in the middle of this island - surrounded by several wild coconut trees breaching like a giant dome. It somewhat resembles a planetarium, and the view at night is as clear as viewing it from the Celestial Realm, and definitely no less magnificent. The gentle rocking sounds of little waves paddling on the sand is also on point like a sweet lullaby to him, which has been easing his mind every sleepless night for... as long as he can remember. He’s been here so long that all senses of time were already lost in him. It could’ve been days, months, years, decades, not yet a century - it hasn’t been so dreadful like how he recalls, that he’s stayed here alone, waiting and waiting and waiting for any sight of his brothers, his family, anyone, to come and bring him away from this lonely sanctuary.

He gathers some firewood - some branches from the pile he managed to pull back yesterday after hours of going round and round the island, and starts a small fire. The wind embraces it gently, and while Leviathan gets busy with the lobster, the fire just slowly nibbles on the bark, cracking the dry branches into funny and calm popping sounds and dusts of ashes. The job used to be so hard for him, after all these things were always prepared for them on the table, or Lilith would secretly make and share some with all of her brothers, including him. If he could recall, there was this one time Lilith came to visit him during one of his patrols in a sunny morning - just like today, in her hand a little box delicately wrapped in a purple cloth - a bento box, she explained, she learned how to make one by watching the humans do it, and it was heavenly delicious. Leviathan tends to starve himself when he’s too focused on missions, so knowing that someone cares about him makes his heart go wild and his stomach flutter. It’s like having a swarm of jellyfish wiggling inside.

These days have been drastic, but it’s not something he can’t take. As he takes a bite of the lobster, already cracked from its red shell, he looks up. The clouds have dissipated, returning a beautifully clear blue to the sky. The seagull above him cries loudly, but peacefully as it fly by. Dreadful cries of a seagull are usually and unceremoniously accounted bad omens, but to him it’s just merely pitiful mourning for his unwanted quarantine. The meat tastes a little smoky, perhaps a little burnt too since he indeed felt like his timing was about a minute late, he was watching the free bird swirling a couple rounds over his head. But at least the staple food replenished him enough so that today’s meals won’t be much of a priority.

...  
...  
...

Leviathan giggles as the fish swim around him happily. It’s like they are trying to hug him, pulling him into their little hide and seek game as they quickly dash down to a branch of brown coral, snooping and looking at him with their curious eyes. The branch shakes gently with the current, trying to shoo away the playful little fish that tend to nestle in. He dives further down, the pressure of small waves crashed on him with its futile effort to push him back, making it glow brighter under the now scorching sun above. They swim away again, but this time they just move from the coral branch to give him a better view at its hidden beauty - a treasure that only those who are brave enough to search for can see.

He leaned his back lightly on the branches of coral, eyes glimmering above where rays of sun coat the sandy floor. It’s a refreshing point of view. Many can try picturing the beautiful scenery in their head, but to experience it first hand without anything in the way? Perhaps only Leviathan and the creatures blessed with the ability to live underwater can do so. Lilith would be so excited to try, tempted by his clear description of the translucent blue embraced by a vast bright yellow coat. He wonders if Lilith can see this right now - dawn breaking over the earth she loves so much, a breathtaking beauty that rivals such of Heaven’s itself.

Only in the gentle embrace of water can he feel safe in his true monstrous form. His tail, no longer hidden, curls around the coral like an anchor to hold himself before the current washes him away. The little fish now spin around his horns, thinking that’s their new playground. He doesn’t mind the swishing sounds they make, it calms him down. It reminds him that he can be loved, no matter as an angel, a brave commander who would lead his soldiers to success, or just a horrific beast lurking in darkness. There will always be this vast blue, the little creatures within it, that isn’t afraid of him. He is safe. He is sane.

When he opens his eyes, he saw something floating by.

Drifting above the surface, cutting through the light, is an old bottle of wine.

The bottle seems empty, but in its jarred reflection underneath the water, there is something else inside. Upon a closer look as he turns it left and right and every direction possible, it’s a rolled up piece of paper. As small as the size of his pinky, it sinks deep into the bottom and lays there mindlessly while its host drifts to an endless course until it stumbled upon him. It’s been so long since he last saw something that close to a hint of human lives around him, he’s almost forgot how long he has been around here. His mellowed sunset-hued eyes sparkle with joy as he opens the bottle and takes out its contents, a tinge of visible curiosity perks on his face.

Holding that scrap of paper, it’s even smaller now that it lays cold in his big palm. It feels different than any kind of materials he used on the island, not even the flawlessly rough surface of trees surrounding his little sanctuary. The way it feels against his skin brings a source of excitement - he’s always been eager to find a trace of life. A bottle with a message in it alone proved the existence of humans nearby - maybe not too near, but enough for him to deduce where exactly he is right now. So he shakily, slowly, achingly rolls the small parchment out, inch by inch.

_‘I love you.’_

...  
...  
...

He’s been running.

He’s been swimming.

No one knows how long he’s been doing such arrogant activities, yet even when his legs scream defeat and his body aches all over, he forces himself to keep on running and swimming towards the unknown.

The vast sea envelopes his body in its icy hand, while sands and the sun that has already moved itself straight up above his head burn his skin to a red charred scrap. But none could be palpable as his throbbing pain stinging in his chest, hammering too loudly as he grasps where his heart should be, and runs.

In the end, he has to stop.

He has no more energy to dash across the sea any longer, now his arms and legs entirely give up, slumped and numb on the sea floor. He pants, ragged breaths drowned into tiny bubbles popped by the current as he sinks deeper and deeper downward. His heart has never beated so heavily, and this heartache resides in him ever since he saw what the paper has inside.

It was Lilith’s.

It _should_ be Lilith’s.

Or any of his brothers’, he believes.

Any futile attempt there was to quench this mad remembrance that ravages his mind now dissolved like how the little mermaid turns into thousands and thousands of bubbles, breaking away.

He misses Lilith.

He misses his brothers.

He misses them all so much.

He wishes the sea would bring them to him rather than just a memoir of his siblings when he can’t no longer handle this loneliness.

His grip clenches tighter, the water has already drenched that piece of parchment in salty wetness.

He can’t tell whether that was his tear or the sea anymore.

His sobbing cries muted away by the hollow blue, forever locking away his barest emotions in its heartless hold.

**_Underwater._ **

**Author's Note:**

> ‘Higher’ is definitely a song with feels despite its upbeat, which I’d highly recommend.


End file.
